COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Solidago. 



Of the fifty-six Goldenrods listed in Gray's Manual, 7th 

 edition, probably seventeen distinct species have been 

 found on Nantucket. Of these the most characteristic and 

 the most frequent are the following: 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Solidago altissima, L. 



Yellow Tall Goldenrod, 



Double Goldenrod, 

 August-September Yellow-weed. 



Solidago: Latin meaning to join or make whole, in allusion 



to reputed vulnerary qualities. 

 Altissima: Latin for "highest." 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry ground, roadsides, also 

 "along thickets, near low grounds." 



THE PLANT: erect, three feet high and frequently higher; 

 the stem having ashy-grey, soft, short hairs, stout. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; lanceolate; sometimes five inches 

 long; thickish; having short hairs which may be soft or 

 somewhat dry above, soft hairs beneath; nearly entire or 

 more or less toothed. 



THE FLOWER HEADS: crowded in recurved racemes, form- 

 ing dense, high, broadly pyramidal panicles; the bracts of 

 the involucre linear. 



THE FRUIT: achenes; pappus of bristles. 



This Goldenrod is particularly fond of growing in close 

 masses in "thickets near low ground." It is one of the 

 tallest of the Nantucket Goldenrods, one of the earliest to 

 bloom and one of the first to disappear. Its distinguish- 



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